Dreams of Light and Shadow
by Silver Rose3
Summary: *Chapter 3 is up!* Hermione is in a somewhat difficult situation. Draco Malfoy seems only to make it worse. But does Hermione secretly like it that way? Please R/R!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, unfortunately for me. But I do own Draco in my own little twisted world, hehe.  
  
A/N: All right, um. . . um. . . This is my first fic, so please forgive me if it isn't any good. This story contains the D/H, R/H, and H/G ships, so if you don't like those ships, don't read the story! Also, this story is rated R for a reason. Don't say I didn't warn you. Here we go. . .  
  
Golden rays of sunlight poured though Hermione Granger's window onto her blue, plush carpet, leaving dappled patches of light and shadow. She peacefully stirred in her sleep and opened both eyes very slowly. She knew she had awoken quite early, as the sun had barely just begun to creep over the large hill her window faced. She decided it best to get up anyway.  
  
She was going to Diagon Alley today to purchase her school items. But inwardly she dreaded it.  
  
You see, her family was on the verge of being in a financial crisis. This was happening because of two things: First of all, the small village near London they lived in was hit hard by its main source of employment shutting down. Most of the former workers at the factory had moved into London to find jobs and support their families. This had greatly decreased the population, as well as the number of patients that appeared at her parents' dentistry practice.  
  
To make matters much, much worse, her father had lost a huge sum of money in some stupid, drunken bet. When she and her mother first heard the news, they were in complete and utter shock. It couldn't be true! Could it? How could such a smart, kind, responsible man do such a thing? Even he didn't know. And now they were all suffering from the consequences. This meant shabby secondhand robes and torn up old books, two things Hermione was definitely not used to, or looking forward to for that matter. And neither were what a prefect should have in her opinion. She imagined she might be called the "Poor Prefect".  
  
'Stop it Hermione!' she mentally scolded herself, 'You're acting like a snob.'  
  
Now she finally knew what Ron went through every year when it came to not having nice, new things. That reminded her that she would be seeing Ron and Harry today, as a matter of fact. Well, that was one good thing about going to Diagon Alley.  
  
'Gosh, I haven't seen them since we got off the train last year,' she thought with a bit of surprise.  
  
She would have seen them sooner at the Burrow, had she been able to go. However, she had been on holiday in France, before all the financial problems had occurred, when the letter with the invitation had arrived. She had come home to frustration that she had missed a visit with them. Both of them sent her letters asking why she didn't come. Ron's was a little longer than Harry's, and seemed to be a little more anxious too. She replied to both with apologies and explanations, as well as promises of "next time".  
  
"Hermione! Are you up yet?" came her mother's voice from downstairs, breaking her train of thought.  
  
"Yes Mother. I'll start getting ready now," she replied.  
  
Two hours later, Hermione and her mother stood in front of the Leaky Cauldron, about to go inside. As they entered, Hermione stole a quick glance around the pub. There were a variety of people there, some in robes, some in muggle clothes. Hermione recognized a few of them, as she had seen them on some previous occasions when she had been there. Just then the back door creaked open, and none other than Draco Malfoy and his father stepped in.  
  
He gave her a smarmy sort of sneer as he passed, which obviously reflected extreme dislike. But also some twisted form of approval which she had not expected at all. This was matched almost exactly by his father, but the sneer on his father's face held absolutely no trace of approval and something more than dislike. Possibly hate? As they exited through the front door, Hermione's mother turned to her and said shortly:  
  
"Let's go. You don't want to keep your friends waiting, now do you?"  
  
Once she had passed through the brick archway, Hermione took out the list with the names of books she was going to need. It was unusual for her to not know already, but since she had been feeling rather depressed about the fact that she would be getting used ones, she hadn't bothered. As she began to read, she widened her eyes in surprise and delight.  
  
"Mother, you are not going to believe this. I already have all of these books!"  
  
"Well that's great honey. This means we will only have to get you one pair of secondhand robes."  
  
Hermione smiled. It was by sheer luck that she had read, as well as owned all the books she was going to need. One set of used robes was better than three. Maybe she wouldn't be the "Poor Prefect" after all.  
  
After exchanging their muggle money for Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts at Gringotts, Hermione told her mother that she could get what she needed more quickly by herself, and she would see her around three at the Leaky Cauldron. Immediately after leaving Gringotts, Hermione made a mad dash for the secondhand robe shop.  
  
"Why am I in such a rush to see him?" she questioned herself aloud, not noticing she had mistakenly said him instead of them.  
  
She shrugged it off, and continued on her way. When she entered the robe shop, she was hit by the overwhelming scent of mildew and must, mingling together to create one awful smell.  
  
"Can I help you?" asked the tall witch behind the counter.  
  
Hermione whirled around, trying to spot the speaker. When she saw her, she replied:  
  
"Yes, hello. I need one set of black school robes please."  
  
"Follow me," the tall witch said curtly.  
  
She led Hermione to section in the back, over which a sign that read "School Robes" in carved wooden lettering hung. The saleswitch studied Hemione for a moment, then pulled two sets of robes off the rack. They both looked like they would fit her. But one set was huge, and would probably hang on her like a drape, while the other looked as if it would be little too tight. She chose to try the smaller set on, praying she wouldn't have to buy the sack that they were calling robes. Fortunately for her, the smaller ones fit and didn't smell like mildew. She felt more like she was wearing some kind of dress when she tried them on, for they hugged her curves and outlined her figure. They weren't loose as robes should be. She paid the tall saleswitch and left the shop, hoping she would never again be subjected to that smell.  
  
After that she went to Madam Malkin's for her new robes. This didn't take long, and she was only there for thirty minutes. She decided it was now about time she hunted down Ron and Harry. About an hour later, she saw them leaning against the window of Ollivander's, talking about Quidditch. No surprise there. She hurried up to them.  
  
"I was looking for you guys for almost an hour!" she said in a very annoyed voice.  
  
Harry replied, "Well it's nice to see you too Hermione!" as he swept her up in a huge bear hug.  
  
As soon as Harry let her go she was in Ron's embrace, and his seemed to be a lot longer than Harry's.  
  
"Let me go before you squeeze the life out of me!" she said in an exasperated tone.  
  
"All right, all right!" Ron said as he let go of her. He seemed to regret it discreetly though. "So how was your summer?"  
  
"Fine," she lied.  
  
Then Harry broke in, "You'll never guess who we saw Herm! And boy did they look different!"  
  
"Really? Who?"  
  
"Neville Longbottom. He has a beard and mustache now!" said Ron excitedly.  
  
"Are you serious?" Hermione asked, not believing what Ron had just said. Somehow she just could not imagine Neville with facial hair.  
  
"Dead serious." he responded with a mischievous smile.  
  
Harry began to speak, "Well, I guess that's normal. I mean people do change in appearance over time."  
  
"Yeah," Hermione replied, "I saw Malfoy earlier today, and he looked really goo. . ."  
  
She stopped herself.  
  
"What did you say Hermione? Did you say he looked good?" Ron questioned in an angered tone with jealous eyes.  
  
"No you git! I said he looked grungy!" she retorted.  
  
"Right. Sorry." He uttered this very softly and seemed to have an air of embarrassment in his voice.  
  
'Oh my God! I thought he looked good! Snap out of it Hermione!' she mentally slapped herself.  
  
Speaking of how people looked, how did Ron and Harry look? She took a moment to find out. Ron had changed quite a lot. He was still pretty tall but his body wasn't long and lanky anymore. He was now well built, much like his brothers Bill and Charlie. His face had hardened and become more rugged, but still had an abundance of freckles. His hair was as red as ever, but somehow it suited him perfectly. Harry was still a bit short, but not shorter than Hermione herself. His face had that boyish sort of charm that most girls thought was very cute. He had a good upper body, obviously the result from years of Quidditch training. His piercing green eyes stood out from under the cover of his unruly black hair, but were still useless without glasses.  
  
All of a sudden, Harry broke the silence that had been flowing between them with a loud shout announcing he was hungry and that they should go get something to eat. Ron and Hermione agreed, as they had started to become hungry too. So off they went on a quest for food.  
  
"How did your day go?" Hermione's mother inquired while making a left-hand turn off the main road.  
  
"It went fine," she replied absentmindedly while gazing out the window.  
  
She was still pondering what she had said about Malfoy earlier, as well as the strange look he'd given her. She had said he was good looking! This was definitely a first. She'd always thought of him as a just spoiled little rich boy, never as an attractive member of the opposite sex! Yet he was, and there was no way around it.  
  
A/N: You like? Well even if you don't, please review! I promise this story will get darker and darker as the chapters progress, and there will be some snogging featuring Hermione and Draco! Also, you will see why I have rated it R as well. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this if you've made it this far. It means a lot to me! Next chapter should be up relatively soon. Later. . . 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, which is probably a good thing. I think I would end up making people cringe with disgust at the mention of the subject. Fortunately, JK does not!  
  
A/N: Hi people. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and reviewed! I may start replying to a few reviews, but we'll see how it goes. As some of you know I changed the title. I had the other one because I thought it would fit well with the beginning and end of the story. But then I realized how plain and boring it was, so I changed it. Um. . . That's enough idle chatter from me. Here's Chapter 2:  
  
She glanced quickly around the platform. Nobody she knew in sight yet, but they would be there soon enough.  
  
"Hermione!"  
  
She whipped around and found herself to be looking into the face of Parvati Patil.  
  
"Hey Hermione! It's good to see you again. How did your summer holiday go?"  
  
It seemed to her that Parvati said this all very fast, as if trying to get it over with as quickly as possible. Moreover, Hermione had a hunch that she really didn't care a bit about how her summer had been.  
  
"Well, let's see. I went to the center of the Earth, rode a pink ostrich, and I learned how to stand on my head and blow bubbles."  
  
"That's nice," she replied, while twirling a lock of black hair around her finger, her eyes cast to the side.  
  
"Well it was nice chatting with you, but I've got to go. Bye Hermione!"  
  
Parvati walked somewhere off to the right. Some things never change. But even though Parvati had her faults, she was still a good person. All of a sudden, Hermione heard familiar voices from behind her. She turned around and saw that Harry and Ron had begun to run towards the spot on which she stood, their trunks scraping along the floor behind them. Just as they reached her, the train whistle sounded loudly.  
  
"Honestly! You two might have missed the train!" Hermione voiced to them, sounding very displeased.  
  
"Relax. We made it on time! Don't be so uptight!" Ron said this in a cheery, carefree sort of voice that made Hermione feel like kicking him.  
  
Then Harry said, "Come on guys. Let's go get a good compartment."  
  
They finally found an empty one near the back after a seemingly hopeless search, and each of them gratefully sank into a seat.  
  
Harry and Ron immersed themselves in a game of chess. Despite Hermione's many attempts to start a conversation, they remained silent. Hermione was feeling rather pissed. Her two best friends, ignoring her! She knew very well that she was overreacting, but she didn't care. However, she wasn't about to have some silly fit, so she contented herself with throwing them nasty looks from her seat by the window. Just then, the compartment door slid open, and Draco Malfoy stepped in.  
  
He was followed by his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle.  
  
"Well, look who it is. Potty and Weasel. And the Mudblood too." he said in a long, drawling voice.  
  
Ron growled, "I'm not a weasel Malfoy. But you are definitely a ferret."  
  
Harry jumped in, "Malfoy, why don't you just get your ass out of here, before I have to kick it!"  
  
"What's the matter Potter? Afraid that you can't?"  
  
Before Harry could respond, Hermione spoke, "Malfoy. Please just get out of here. Go. Just go."  
  
Malfoy sauntered over to her.  
  
"Well, well, well. It seems that Miss Mudblood has finally grown up." He said this while gazing very blatantly at her breasts. Then he lifted his head and gave her that look. That same look she had been thinking about ever since he had given it to her two weeks ago. She turned her head the opposite way.  
  
'No more of this please,' she thought desperately. 'No more.'  
  
All of a sudden, Ron had Malfoy up against the wall of the compartment, cursing loudly at him and Hermione heard him say angrily in rasping breaths:  
  
"If you ever look at her like that again, I swear. . ."  
  
But then Crabbe and Goyle moved forward, menacing looks upon their ugly faces, and Ron had to let him go.  
  
As they left the compartment, Harry turned to Hermione.  
  
"Are you all right Herm?"  
  
"I'm fine. I'm just going to go change now I think."  
  
She made her way to the small bathroom. Hermione changed out of her black tank top and stretch jeans into some new robes. She wanted to delay wearing the secondhand ones as long as possible. She smiled as she pinned her silver prefect badge onto her chest. In this moment, she felt almost completely happy. This was something she had been striving for ever since her first day at Hogwarts, and now she had it. It was hers. She let out a long sigh, and returned to her compartment.  
  
Harry and Ron had changed while she was gone. Ron's robes were a bit tattered and worn, but didn't look that bad. Harry, of course, had beautiful new black robes. She sat back down in her seat.  
  
Silence filled the rest of the journey. Hermione suspected it was because none them knew quite what to say to each other. Hermione couldn't have put her feelings in words anyway.  
  
A few hours later, the train came to a stop. There were shouts and yells as Hagrid scrambled to get the first years in the boats and the older students into carriages. Hermione, Ron and Harry got into one of the carriages. They were soon joined by Neville.  
  
The rumors were true. Neville did have facial hair, and in vast quantities too. Hermione stared at him, and suppressed a giggle. She could not believe it, not one little bit. But, it was true.  
  
Neville addressed everyone, "It's good to see you all again! I trust your summers went well."  
  
Hermione nodded an untruthful yes.  
  
"Mine was boring. Gram had me do stupid chores. And I couldn't use magic of course."  
  
"My brothers opened up their joke shop in Hogsmeade in June. They told me business is booming." Ron said happily.  
  
"That's good news," Harry said, "Well the Dursleys were a pleasure. I can't wait to see them again."  
  
Ron sniggered.  
  
"But I did get a few letters from Sir. . ."  
  
"Harry!" Hermione screamed.  
  
"Nobody," Harry concluded.  
  
"Nobody! What do you mean by that?" Neville asked.  
  
"Nothing," Hermione said.  
  
The carriage came to a halt, and the door opened. Hermione stepped out into the cool, night air. Everyone was lined up to go inside, so she, Ron, Harry, and Neville joined the ranks.  
  
They entered the great hall, which was lighted by levitating candles and moonlight beaming down from the bewitched ceiling. They each found seats at the Gryffindor table, and plopped down. The Sorting was about to commence.  
  
McGonagall started to read names from the list.  
  
"Adams, Richard"  
  
"RAVENCLAW!"  
  
"Collins, Christopher"  
  
"HUFFLEPUFF!"  
  
"Davis, Wendy"  
  
"RAVENCLAW!"  
  
"Ferguson, Patrick"  
  
"SLYTHERIN!"  
  
"Hall, Adele"  
  
"GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
Hermione did not even notice when her own table erupted with applause as Adele Hall joined them. Her mind was too clouded with thoughts and worries to pay attention. Why did Malfoy have to be such a pain in the ass.  
  
After the Sorting ended, Dumbledore began to get up from his seat, and each mouth stopped emitting sound.  
  
"Welcome to another wonderful year at Hogwarts! Dumbledore said, smiling from ear to ear.  
  
And so it began.  
  
A/N: Yay! I got the second chapter up. Go me! Okay, that was stupid. Anyway, please review. It will make me very happy. Later. . . 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: You know what this says. . .  
  
A/N: Sorry I took so long to get this chapter posted. My computer is really messed up right now.  
  
Hermione took a few small sips of her orange juice as she sat quietly at the Gryffindor table. Last night had been quite exhausting for her, and she craved sleep badly. She took a small bite of egg and looked around the expansive hall. There appeared to be a spot of whitish gleam coming from the Slytherin table. Upon finding out what it was, her face shriveled up in sheer disgust. It was Draco Malfoy's hair.  
  
She let out a disgruntled sound, and shook her head. That's when her view was blocked by someone clad in black robes. She raised her head to see that it was Harry.  
  
"Ready to go?" Harry said.  
  
Hermione stood up and glanced down at her half eaten breakfast.  
  
"Yeah, let's go."  
  
A few minutes later they were at Hagrid's small hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Ron and most of the other Gryffindors were already there, as well as the Slytherins.  
  
"Crap," Hermione muttered.  
  
The door opened, and the large man stepped out. He was followed by his proportionally sized dog.  
  
"Good mornin'. We'll be workin' with some large creatures today, so mind yerselves. Yeh won' be needin' yer books."  
  
Slowly, but surely, Hagrid had gotten his confidence back. This was a great relief to Hermione. She hated Flobberworms.  
  
He led them all over to the edge of the lake. After a few moments, there was a huge splash on the water. A swimming creature came towards them at great speed. It looked like a horse, but instead of hindquarters it had the tail of gigantic fish.  
  
"Hagrid, that's a hippocampus isn't it?" Hermione asked, already knowing the answer.  
  
"Right yeh are, Hermione." Hagrid replied happily, beaming at her. "Beau'iful, isn' she."  
  
She was. The hippocampus had a pure white coat. Her silky mane shined in the bright sunlight, and her iridescent tail sparkled. She whinnied loudly.  
  
"C'mon now. Don' be afraid" Hagrid coaxed.  
  
"Hermione, Ron and Harry approached first. Hagrid handed each of them a pail of cold, wet, slimy seaweed.  
  
"Now there's three more of 'em in here. I'll see if I can' get 'em ter come up, an' you all can feed 'em." he motioned to the rest of the class.  
  
A few minutes later there were three more large splashes as the creatures surfaced. Each was different color. One was an almost bluish dappled gray, and another had a light creamy coat. The other hippocampus was a blood-red bay with a black mane and black leg markings.  
  
The rest of the class approached cautiously, and everybody received a pail of seaweed from Hagrid. Everyone was tentatively feeding a hippocampus and enjoying the strange, but beautiful creatures. Everyone except Draco Malfoy and his elite group of Slytherins.  
  
"Why don' yeh try an' feed one Malfoy?" Hagrid asked, offering him a pail of seaweed.  
  
"You've got to be joking. There's no way in Hell I'm even getting near one of those things," he said in a defiant voice.  
  
Then Ron said, "What's wrong Malfoy? Afraid are you?"  
  
Before Malfoy could answer, Hagrid cut him off, "That's all fer today, best get yer books an' such." Hermione could sense the nervousness in his voice.  
  
Everyone began to gather up their books and head off to lunch. Hermione watched Malfoy out of the corner of her eye. He was such a horrible person, but there was just something about him that captivated her. Enigmatically, she was drawn to him. She couldn't possibly explain it, and she didn't want to.  
  
Lunch passed by with no event. Hermione sat in between Ron and Harry. Ron had tried to talk to her, but she expressed no interest whatsoever. She didn't notice the look of disappointment on his face when she refused to engage in conversation.  
  
Hermione and the rest of the sixth year Gryffindors had Herbology with the Hufflepuffs next. Professor Sprout was in a jovial mood, and began to rant and rave about all the rare and special plants they would be working with during the year. Ernie Macmillan actually began to doze off in the middle of her speech. Hermione saw him repeatedly close his eyes, then pop them back open again a minute later, looking extremely bewildered. But Neville was wide awake. He was focused intently on Professor Sprout, hanging on to her every word. After she was finished, she began to pass out sealed containers with brightly colored mushrooms inside. "Now these mushrooms are very poisonous, and that is why I have put them in these containers," Professor Sprout announced to the class, "You will contract a rash if you are even a foot away from a single specimen, and will die almost instantly if you happen to eat one."  
  
She paused to make sure the class was paying attention.  
  
"I have added a certain type of potion to each container, and it should start taking affect soon. This potion will start eating away at the mushrooms and will kill them relatively quickly. As this happens a chemical reaction takes place, and a special gas is released. This gas is used to raise the viscosity of many potions. I will collect your containers at the end of class and give them to Professor Snape for his concoctions. Look there class, Mr. Longbottom's mushroom has started to disintegrate."  
  
Everybody looked over. The potion was burning small holes in the colorful fungi, eating away at it. Hermione looked at her own mushroom. Hers was following suit.  
  
Herbology ended soon afterwards. The trio walked silently back up to Gryffindor Tower. Hermione said she would catch up with Harry and Ron at dinner, and took the stairs up to the room that she and the other sixth year Gryffindor girls shared. Crookshanks was curled up in an orange ball of fluff on her bed. She sank into the warm, soft bed, and closed her eyes lazily. She fought to push her many, confusing thoughts back, and let herself fall into the sweet release of sleep. She did not know how long she had lain there when came a knock on the door that awoke her.  
  
"Who is it?" she called.  
  
Her voice came out in hoarse whisper. She knew whoever it was wouldn't be able to hear her, so she tried again in a louder tone.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"It's me, Ron. Are you all right? Harry and I started to get worried about you. We thought maybe you'd found someone else to go down to dinner with."  
  
"Oh no!" Hermione responded jokingly, getting up, "The horror of the thought!"  
  
A smiling Ron was to be found when she opened the door.  
  
"You know you and Harry are the only two people in the world I'd ever go down to dinner with." she said with mock sincerity.  
  
"Really? Wow! I feel so privileged!"  
  
"You should," she said in voice full of concealed laughter. The thought then ran through Ron's mind that he actually was.  
  
A/N: Well. . . that was interesting. Like I said, my computer is screwed up, so I don't know how long it will be before I update again. But I promise there will be a lot more going on between Draco and Hermione in the next chapter! Please review. You can even flame me if you want. I like toasted marshmallows. 


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